Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Children's Day observing the Nation.

The Metcalfe Hall is situated at the junction of Strand Road and Hare Street, the heart of the city's business centre. Its architecture is reflective of the British imperial architecture of the early nineteenth century. It was built between 1840 and 1844 according to the design prepared by the city magistrate, C. K. Robinson and named after Sir Charles T. Metcalfe, the Governor-General of india, in honour of his efforts towards a free press. The building faces the Hooghly river on the West. The notable Greek order of the architecture was taken from the Tower of the Winds in Athens, one of the time tested designes of durability and lightness. The building is raised on a solid basement and thirty huge Corinthian pillars support a massive entablature. The columns and colonnade surround the whole building.

Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of Bengal in 1773. At first, he resided in a house at Raj Bhawan. In 1776, he constructed a house as his own residence, which is known today as Hastings House. The house is a bungalow type and constructed in European style. Pillars of the portico of the house are Tuscan and inside pillars are in Ionio style. Afterwards, Lord Curzon included the house under the control of the then govt.

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN... After a long interval of 34 years, Mohun Bagan - Kolkata's leading football club, makes history by defeating its ever-opponent club East Bengal by 5-3 in I-League Football Tournament. Here are the pics after the victory of my favourite football club - Mohun Bagan.

A rare-species owl found in the suburb recently. It was reared by a housewife as a pet. But handed over to the State Forest Dept. at last yesterday.

Margaret Elizabeth Noble was born on 28 October, 1867 in Ireland. She net Swami Vivekananda in 1895 for the first time and in response to his call, came to Kolkata in 1898. Margaret Noble was initiated into the monastic order in the same year and given the name, Nivedita, the Dedicated or the Offered one. Swami Vivekananda was in the process of evolving a new monastic order which was to combine renunciation with service. She threw herself totally behind the Swamis efforts in bringing about an Indian Renaissance. In India, she was probably known as Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. She joined plague relief works of the Ramakrishna Mission in March 1898 and formed The Ramakrishna Guild of Help in America. There broke out am overwhelming plague at Kolkata in March 1899 and she devoted herself to serve the diseased. She died in 1911. Throughout her life, she kept assisting the poor and the distressed. Thus, she became a deathlss symbol of relinquisiment and service.